Esther Shein

Professional Experience

Cloud, AI, IoT, oh my. Despite what you've read, technology/business articles do NOT have to be dry and dull. I know how to jazz 'em up. I'm a freelance writer and editor with over 25 years of experience specializing in how disruptive technologies can and are making businesses more competitive. I've also reviewed restaurants and have written extensively about education and human interest topics. I write features, case studies, white papers, ebooks, profiles and breaking news stories.

Corporate Client List (# assignments last 2 yrs)

Other Work History

Former managing editor of BYTE; editor-in-chief of online technology magazine Datamation; also a senior writer at eWeek (formerly PC Week) for several years and a staff writer for community newspapers including The Malden Evening News and Allston-Brighton Citizen Item; also a stringer for The Associated Press.

Computer Skills

Word, HTML, Excel, PowerPoint

Equipment

I have a fully equipped home office and a laptop computer for remote assignments.

Awards

1994 Recipient of Distinguished Journalist Award from the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health for coverage of mental health issues.

Associations

Internet Press Guild

Work Samples

General

The popularity of the Dropbox file storage service is creating more opportunity for partners since the expansion of its Dropbox Partner Network last November as well as the addition of Dropbox Enterprise to its product arsenal, which also includes Dropbox Business.

Thanks to its star turn on TV’s Jeopardy!, IBM’s Watson has become synonymous with cognitive computing, a technology gaining increasing importance and momentum in the enterprise. With more organizations recognizing the need to make sense of unstructured data, IBM in February launched three application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to extend the capabilities of the Watson platform.

Supply chain disruption has become a huge concern for the automotive industry. Suppliers operating in countries exposed to a higher risk of natural disaster face the fastest-growing business continuity risk when it comes to global sourcing, according to a report from BSI Supply Chain Solutions.

The ability to mask one’s identity online has gained attention in recent weeks since it was revealed the terrorists in the attacks in Paris used cybertools to communicate and keep their activities anonymous. France is now reportedly looking into banning the Tor browser, which lets users "defend against traffic analysis."

'Tis the season when retailers ramp up for increased sales and wrap up technology projects - but also a time when full-time employees take time off. In the meantime, critical back-end systems need to stay up and running. For many organizations, the go-to solution to this low supply and high demand.

The data center is transforming -- modernizing to meet business demand as technologies such as software-defined architecture, cloud and virtualization take hold. This modernization is also being driven by CIOs and IT executives taking a hard look at their computing needs.

If you're a small business owner, you may think the Internet of Things (IoT) has value only for large companies with big technology budgets. But the IoT is also creating opportunity for small businesses, helping them improve efficiency and create innovative products.

Organizations contemplating a move to cloud computing often eye private clouds, which offer some of the same benefits that public clouds provide, but for exclusive use by one business. While private clouds are not used as frequently as the public cloud, many reports show adoption is growing.

The managed print service market is in a constant state of evolution, and providers are keeping up by layering apps on top of print offerings as well as developing services for vertical or niche industries.

Moving business processes to the cloud is no longer a matter of if, but when. More enterprises are adopting a hybrid approach that blends private and public clouds. More than 65% of enterprise IT organizations will be deploying some form of hybrid cloud before 2016, according to IDC.

Computer-assisted language learning systems are useful in helping address the basic aspects of language such as speaking, reading, and writing, but often we get tripped up in the intricacies of pronunciation.

Hosted virtual desktops offer service providers a stronger client relationship and, potentially, a profitable line of business. Deciding how to enter the market, however, demands a thorough assessment of available options.

Not surprisingly, mobile security ranks among the top challenges IT faces when it comes to protecting small and mid-sized businesses. What is surprising, however, is that only 16% of SMBs worldwide responding to a recent Techaisle survey say they're prepared to deal with mobile security challenges.

As software-defined networking continues its labyrinthine journey toward broad widespread deployment, industry observers say there is some jockeying for market position among the major networking vendors, but the OpenDaylight project appears to be gaining significant momentum.

Some companies are outsourcing cloud migration to managed service providers. These firms handle servers and other equipment, as well as hosted applications. They patch and update antivirus software, take charge of server upgrades, scale computing capacity and ensure business continuity.

Security breaches are becoming almost regular news. With ongoing high-profile revelations about the likes of Home Depot and JPMorgan Chase having millions of customers' data hacked, such events are losing their capacity to shock. Until, that is, it happens to your business.

Security has typically fallen under the purview of IT, but it's time to elevate it to a C-suite level discussion. Seemingly every time we turn around there's something in the news or on social media about high-profile breaches.

As more companies recognize the need to break down the walls that divide software developers and IT operations, recruiting DevOps skills has become more critical, and DevOps recruiting has become more difficult.

Colleges and universities typically use the free version of Google Analytics to track how people interact with their websites, including where visitors are coming in from and the pages they're visiting,. but not enough schools are taking the time to glean critical information from that data.

Watchwith has built a cloud-based platform that lets TV networks and other content providers power interactivity through apps to further engage consumers while they watch shows, movies and commercials.

Marketers use the most cloud apps in an organization, yet 98 percent of their apps are not "enterprise-ready" and put data at risk, according to a new report on app usage trends by cloud security company Netskope.

Boston's three public safety agencies are expecting to see significant improvements in response time and more efficient communications, thanks to the city's new computer-aided 911 dispatch system deployed earlier this month.

If you're a managed services provider who wants to deliver managed email, chances are you'll be looking for a partner. Seventy-one percent of managed service providers (MSPs) currently offer one or more forms of email hosting and another 14% are planning to do so, according to Techaisle.

Drones are on more people's radars lately-so to speak-and that got Babson College MBA candidate Abby Speicher and her business partners thinking about a possible opportunity: providing training to public safety departments related to these unmanned aerial vehicles.

IT shops that want to use the cloud as the compute platform for some or all of their applications must first migrate those applications to the cloud. That task is easier said than done, and many companies are turning to channel partners for help.

The criteria for what makes for a great vendor aren't what they used to be. As partners refocus their businesses on enablement and offering services, they evaluate vendors for responsiveness, channel strategy and more.

To gauge the ability of professional graphic designers to do basic programming, Brian Dorn, then a graduate student at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), asked a group of them to read and modify a piece of program code.

Electronics manufacturers are notorious for poor working conditions in overseas factories, but some have made strides toward being more socially and environmentally responsible, according to a new report.

The nascent field of network virtualization has yet to take off for most managed services providers (MSPs), but some observers say the maturation of VMware network virtualization software could boost the market's prospects.

Project management is a position many people segue into from other jobs within IT, such as business analyst, systems analyst or software developer, as opposed to being hired for the job at the outset of their careers, industry observers say.

iKeg, from SteadyServ, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) inventory and order management system is one of the latest entries on the market tapping into the Internet of Things (IoT) phenomenon in the beer industry.

IoT opportunities exist for partners, but according to experts, taking the first step into the IoT space requires channel firms to embrace cloud computing, new partnerships, and IoT protocol. Some companies have already found success.

Colleges and universities miss a significant opportunity to capture the attention of their primary web audience-teens and young adults-when their websites aren't designed to perform well on mobile devices.

Python, an open source scripting language, has become the most popular introductory teaching language at top U.S. universities, according to a recent survey by Philip Guo, an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Rochester.

Much has been written about the promise of artificial intelligence (AI), which has made something of a comeback as business analytics began to take off. Now, a number of startups have cropped up to work on an AI algorithm technique known as deep learning.

Getting ready for mobile really boils down to one thing - taking some sort of action and not letting fear or uncertainty overwhelm you. Yet many organizations aren't doing much and meanwhile, employees are increasingly using mobile devices to do their work. It's up to the CIO to step up to the plate

It's no longer wise -- or safe -- for IT to stay entrenched in the old approach of merely deploying and maintaining a company's hardware and software. Technology has taken center stage in helping to transform a business and enhance its competitive edge.

Mobile platforms such as smartphones and tablets are convenient for workers who want to connect to their corporate network outside the office. However, this near-constant connectivity limits the control IT departments have over what employees do.

More and more businesses have their heads in the cloud lately, so it only makes sense that partners do too. But managed cloud services is different from managing on-premises systems, and some partners are finding themselves having to make adjustments.

As college and university professors continue to move from the traditional lecture format to a facilitated learning model, officials are rethinking the classroom setup. Students collaborate at tables while instructors move freely through the room. The lecturer's desk is no longer the focal point.

CMOs face an uncertain future. Reasons why include the blurring lines of responsibility across functional groups and a fever-pitch pressure on marketing to demonstrate ROI, according to Lisa Nirell, chief energy officer of EnergizeGrowth, a Washington, D.C.-based marketing consulting firm.

Most college students take a breather at the end of the school year, maybe travel, see a part of the world. But Matt Guthmiller, a 19-year-old freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, plans to see the entire world this summer - from the cockpit of a small single-engine plane.

While channel conflict is nothing new, a 2013 study by industry group CompTIA found that six out of 10 channel companies said conflicts had increased in the previous two years, with 21% saying conflicts had risen significantly. Another 8% said they experienced no conflicts at all.

Matt Guthmiller, a 19-year-old freshman at MIT, is combining his passion for computer science with his love of flying by taking a 28,000-mile solo flight around the world later this month. If he succeeds, he will become the youngest person ever to circumnavigate the globe on a solo flight.

There's no escaping it: from retail to health care to utilities to transportation -- the number of connected devices is increasing every day and has the potential to transform and revolutionize how many industries work.

With companies operating 24x7 and employees increasingly working from mobile devices, the pressure on IT staff to stay in touch even when they are on vacation is becoming almost an unspoken requirement.

Electronics recycling (e-cycling) has come a long way since the 1990s, with far less hardware being tossed into landfills, or exported in containers to Third World nations where toxic components can pollute soil, groundwater, and (if burned, as often happens) the air.

Augmented reality (AR), a technology that superimposes computer-generated images on top of real-world views, is gaining traction as a useful training tool across a wide variety of employee roles, particularly where simulation, training, and skills development are needed.

The role of a vendor's channel account managers, or partner account managers, is to manage the relationship with channel partners, including growing revenue and negotiating contracts. Yet sometimes those relationships don't work as smoothly as they should.

IT channel industry workers in a variety of job roles are, by and large, satisfied with their salaries and careers. They're a highly compensated group, making on average more than three times the U.S. per-capita average and 21% more than the average IT manager at their IT organization customers.

Zoe Youl has taken multitasking to a new level. The 24-year-old registered nurse is working toward a postgraduate certificate in intensive care, while at the same time keeping up with her required 20 hours a year of continuing professional development (CPD).

Just when you thought it was safe to assume the economy was looking fairly positive, a 2014 IT salary survey by Janco Associates and eJobDescription.com debunks that theory, with a less than rosy picture of the IT job market.

Burgers and technology are terms that usually aren't synonymous, but when The Habit restaurant chain wanted to ensure consistency in the quality of its food as well as enhance the customer experience, it was a tasty pairing.

While many marketers still track conversions based on the last click, almost 54 percent of them are interested in implementing a different methodology, according to a just-released survey by Impact Radius of 146 high-ranking CMOs and company principals.

For a 19-year-old-kid who just flew a small plane around the world - setting a record in the process - MIT student Matt Guthmiller seemed to have mixed emotions that his extraordinary six-week journey had come to an end.

Compared with the Windows XP transition, the migration from Server 2003 may be more laborious and complicated for solution providers. Adding to the challenges, customers' attitudes remain mixed -- despite Microsoft's looming deadline.

For many men, shopping with their wives is akin to having someone scratch their nails across a chalkboard. Now there are apps that help compute whether online purchases are an appropriate fit and they are a win-win for consumers and retailers alike.

Marketers will have a laser focus on small and midsize businesses (SMBs) this year, with 70 percent of respondents in a newly released survey by the CMO Council saying the market is extremely important to their businesses.

As organizations look to modernize their IT infrastructure, data center choices are expanding. Cloud, colocation, modular, outsourcing, virtualization and more efficient servers are all vying for your attention, and figuring out the right direction is fraught with challenges, to say the least.

Seeing his mother struggling to complete a task while online banking one day gave Eyal Cohen an idea. Why not create pop-up balloons that would provide step-by-step-instructions? With that, WalkMe was born.

Solutions providers have traditionally marketed their businesses by promoting the vendors they specialize in. But as more companies find themselves increasingly turning to cloud services, providers are responding by seeking vendor products they can white label as their own.

As a newly minted Microsoft managed partner in the southeastern United States, IT solution provider eGroup is starting a new chapter in its relationship with the company. That relationship can be very valuable for Microsoft channel partners, but it takes work and requires a progressive approach.

With the launch of the iPad Mini this week and overall tablet sales expected to skyrocket in 2012, industry observers say the time has never been more ripe to consider purchasing insurance for your devices.

The U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (ARL) have awarded a $21.4 million contract to security software firm Invincea, Inc., to secure Android-based smartphones and tablets for the military.

With BYOD initiatives firmly under their belts, enterprises are shifting their approach and are now focusing on using mobile apps more strategically to increase revenue, reduce costs, and gain a competitive advantage.

Conventional wisdom says that, due to its smaller market share, the Mac OS X is far less susceptible to security threats than its operating system counterparts. But times are changing, along with Apple's market share.

Biomedical information comes at health professionals in petabytes. The CDC is working on responding to potential terrorist attacks and natural disasters using Big Data and electronic health records to focus on bio-surveillance and disease outbreak prevention.

Most people associate the Internet of Things with consumer products, such as refrigerators, thermostats, cars and wearables. But IoT has crept into the office, too. While there's a lot of value that can come out of IoT, these devices lack basic security capabilities. experts say.

The state of the economy ranked as the main challenge solution providers are facing, according to a recent SearchITChannel survey, but channel companies that are reinventing their businesses are finding they are able to differentiate themselves and experience growth.

Mobile payments at the point-of-sale are not quite ready for prime time, but they are coming. It is time to watch the area of near-field communications to evaluate how it will affect your business and your own shopping habits.

Virtual desktop infrastructure is not just for low-resolution desktops any more. VDI also delivers high-resolution, multi-monitor 3D desktops that are well suited for a variety of applications, while remaining a cost-effective solution.

Advances in communication technologies have not only created greater opportunities to reach new markets and suppliers, but also a workplace that is becoming virtual, with team members located around the world.

Depending on who you ask, anywhere from under 10% percent up to 23% of businesses have mobile device-friendly websites. At the same time, right now 10% of all Web traffic originates from mobile devices - and one thing's certain: That figure is only going to grow.

It is not surprising some people might not want certain statements preserved for posterity, and that websites are updated and information altered; after all, the Internet is ephemeral by nature. Yet in doing so, we are doing a disservice to future generations.

The integration of two formidable trends in IT - social and mobile - is driving workplace collaboration and improvements to the technology that enables it, bringing the modern enterprise into the digital age.

You know the saying that everything is for sale if the price is right, and managed service provider and VAR businesses are no exception. But there is much to take into consideration when learning how to sell a small business in the VAR and MSP space.

As organizations start to tackle big data issues and their computing needs increase, the demand for supercomputing capabilities is growing. Many of today's applications need much more computing capacity than in the past, in order to analyze and mine greater amounts of data.

Which apps are making money? It's no secret app revenues vary across mobile platforms, but there are factors that determine how much money an app makes. Here are some tips, along with a look at who the top-grossing developers are.

As boomers move toward retirement their financial needs will be shifting. Older clients are changing their focus from asset accumulation to asset protection, and local banks are learning that they need to grow customer relationships and third-party partnerships.

Media and entertainment companies need efficient data storage to compete and thrive, since they produce and archive hundreds and hundreds of hours of video content. As such, it should come as no surprise that they need a reliable, efficient and highly available storage system that provides massive scalability and data integrity. In this age of high-resolution, digital, file-based workflows and tremendous media growth, selecting the right storage platform is crucial to their success.

As several recent, private sector breaches have illustrated, personally identifiable information, or PII, is not immune to cyber threats. Cyber threats have the attention of government watchdogs as well.

Mobile is gaining momentum as the next go-to channel for marketing campaigns, with 80 percent of smartphone users indicating they are very receptive to receiving location-based text messages from marketers.

The issue of how to keep computers cool generally calls to mind the techniques used in enterprise data centers; that is where energy has traditionally been concentrated, so to speak. Yet, improved cooling from the inside out is crucial to reducing the carbon footprint of computers.

The head of marketing for one of the world's largest point-of-sale systems providers said he doesn't believe near field communications (NFC) will gain significant traction in the near term and will be just one payment option for consumers.

CTOs have learned that cloud computing is invaluable for many business processes, and political campaigns are no different. Cloud computing is playing a critical role in the race for president this year and even in other political campaigns.

Typically, developing a software application for beta testing can take months, even with newer agile development methods. But application visualization can be done within a matter of hours to give users some insight into what that system will look like and how it will work.

There has been a plethora of news stories about teachers and educators who have found their jobs compromised because of what they blog about or misleading information that shows up about them on the web.

The phenomenon of bringing your own device to work will this year move beyond the initial phase of workflow and personal productivity functions toward using apps that enable a variety of business initiatives

As each day passes, consumer mobile devices become more ubiquitous in the workplace. It is getting easier to use them at the office, too, as new apps for smartphones and tablets enable communications, business processes, and workflow. But with workers continuing to blur the lines between what data is personal and what is related to the business come a set of management challenges.

It's no secret that people love the thrill of a contest. Whether it's scoring double rewards points for purchasing NFL-licensed apparel at Sports Authority, or being entered into a trip sweepstakes for liking the neighborhood grocery store on Facebook, game-based offers are seemingly everywhere consumers click.

The presidential candidates may disagree about Iraq, health care and taxes, but their campaigns demonstrate a clear consensus that the rise of Web 2.0 tools offers the chance to engage interested citizens, one market niche, one voter, one message at a time.

As if it weren't enough of a challenge dealing with the BYOD phenomenon on top of corporate-issued smartphones in the enterprise, now mobile device management (MDM) plans need to be re-examined as iOS and Android are being widely embraced--while Blackberry use is on the decline.

Mobile connected devices are the most sought after gifts this holiday season but when it comes time for out with the old, in with the new, BYOD workers need to deal with the data still sitting on discarded devices.

Shopping apps like Catalog Spree and Google Catalogs are changing the way consumers view and use traditional product catalogs. But while the apps promise spiffy features, convenience, and even eco-friendliness, industry observers say the experience is neither perfect nor has it reached critical mass in terms of page views.

Reaction has been lukewarm to the news that Apple has removed its 39 laptops and notebook entries from the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT), a voluntary registry promoting greener electronics, of which it is a founding member.

Just as thin clients move computing power from a laptop into cloud-based servers, robots also no longer need to carry around information or handle processing-intensive tasks such as vision recognition internally, which means they can be built lighter and at less cost.

Supply chain disruption has become a huge concern for the automotive industry. Suppliers operating in countries exposed to a higher risk of natural disaster face the fastest-growing business continuity risk when it comes to global sourcing, according to a report from BSI Supply Chain Solutions.

Security software provider Sophos has introduced an enhanced version of its Mobile Control product, which it says provides improved risk mitigation features, including the ability for IT to remotely wipe a corporate device if an employee leaves a company or does not comply with its security policies.

Some 20.5 million new jobs will be added to the U.S. economy by 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in health care, construction, education
and computer and information technology. More high schools are recognizing the need to start training students in these fields early.

The fundamental friction between sales and marketing is alive and well: A new study of senior marketing executives by the CMO Council issued marketing failing grades in a number of areas related to customer information systems.

Watching television has been a social activity since its inception. Now add to that the enormous popularity of consumer social networks, along with the rapidly growing use of mobile devices--smartphones, tablets, and ultrabooks--and the convergence of all channels appears inevitable.

IBM created a lot of buzz when its Watson computer debuted on the game show Jeopardy! The episode demonstrated the notion that a computer could challenge humans by understanding natural language and answering questions on a variety of topics.

Dell recently rolled out a program that will allow U.S. customers to trade back eligible equipment they have purchased from the company - as well as from IBM, Microsoft, HP, Sun Microsystems and Cisco - in exchange for a fair-market-value rebate toward the purchase of new hardware.

Some phishing attempts are truly ethereal: near flawless representations of official communications. Others, however, are mere mortals. And then there's the absolutely absurd. A look at the pantheon of scammer emails

For users who want to retain the touch and feel of a traditional keyboard on their touchscreen device, Tactus Technology has unveiled a tactile layer component that creates dynamic physical buttons that rise out of the surface of the screen

Software requirements can’t be too vague, but they can’t be so detailed that nobody can read them, either. The people charged with gathering and documenting software requirements may have the best of intentions. But more often than not, the final product is either lacking in detail or way over the top—and not what the end user wanted.

Anyone who creates software for mobile devices has to weigh the time and resources available to support multiple platforms. Recent research shows that the Apple iOS devices are still garnering more attention â€“ and development time â€“ than Android or other alternatives. But it depends which survey you read.

An increase in the number of remote and branch offices is a sign of positive growth for companies. From an IT management perspective, however, it can be a huge challenge, especially when it comes to ensuring limited downtime.

Card-linked marketing (CLM), in which consumers receive targeted advertising through their online and mobile bank statements and cash-back offers based on purchase history, is a "suitable replacement" for traditional marketing strategies, according to a newly released survey by Cardlytics.

Any way you look at it, 2003 was a real bad year for network security. Although corporate concern over cyber threats jumped dramatically, so too did the number of cyber attacks against companies and their machines.

Cloud-based security has gained mass appeal for businesses small and large, and channel partners are taking notice.
In this three-part handbook, we provide a range of tips and insight on the cloud-based security market and the areas in which channel partners can develop business practices.

Organizations find themselves pondering data center growth when they expand their operations or perform equipment refreshes. Among the options vying for their attention: finding a partner for colocation, retrofitting an existing data center or building a modular facility.

As baby boomers retire, an influx of millennial workers are entering the workplace. Now representing one in three American workers, evolving business practices to accommodate this generation is a must for the survival of legal firms.

Cyber breaches make headlines and capture attention. But as organizations focus their energy and resources on preventing and minimizing external data breaches, other security best practices can get overlooked.

Just as colleges are looking for ways to integrate technology into classrooms to increase student engagement and collaboration, this move toward expanding the functionality of mobile devices is gaining steam. The technology exists—challenge is more a matter of melding it with the business strategy, industry observers say.

The term "smart city" has come to mean different things in the tech lexicon, but it is most meaningful in use cases that improve services and quality of life for its residents. Global cities including Singapore, London, Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Barcelona, and Rio de Janeiro—and smaller ones like Bristol in the U.K. and Jakarta in Indonesia—have deployed projects that improve air and traffic quality, and experts say they are ahead of the curve in their smart city efforts.

When Facebook announced in April that companies could start using its Messenger mobile app for free, it set off what is looking like The Year of Bots 1.0, as a number of companies have started experimenting with how bots and chatbots could fundamentally change the way their communications and customer service are handled.

The explosive growth of Internet of Things (IoT) devices and data analytics technologies may transform business productivity, but they’re also spurring concerns about IoT security. These devices are showing up in corporate conference rooms, offices and building camera systems — and security experts say the industry isn’t doing enough to protect them.

It’s common for mobile and internet service providers (ISPs) to put data caps on companies, causing users to experience slower connections once they’ve gone over their limit. The process is also known as data throttling. Another practice is for ISPs to charge more after a customer has exceeded their limit for each gigabyte of data used. Some ISPs may even cut off a customer’s service altogether.

With the ability to deliver systems faster, cheaper and often of better quality, DevOps and agile teams are gaining momentum in many organizations. According to Gartner, DevOps was “by far the most popular search term on Gartner.com related to IT operations in 2015.”

Technologists are always looking for ways to simplify the IT environment and network operations so they become more efficient, and hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) may just be the "it" technology of 2017.

By now, most savvy organizations have figured out that they have to embrace digital transformation to provide a good customer experience. One of the keys to making this transformation possible in the enterprise is ensuring your business becomes more agile. But many businesses find that figuring out how to make the change can be elusive.

Supermarket retailers are increasingly testing out new technologies to create a better digital shopping experience beyond their point-of-sale (PoS) systems. Smart grocers are innovating and offering customers more digital functionalities so they can glean granular insights about and add to the shopping experience.

The overwhelming pace of technological change can leave CIOs and high-level IT managers with little time to think about IT learning opportunities that can help them keep up with the latest trends in mobile, cloud, analytics and digital technologies. Luckily, summer is an ideal time for executives to explore different learning opportunities.

Companies are not just talking about the importance of engaging students in computer science and learning to code; they are doing something about it. In March, the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) rolled out its micro:bit computer to almost one million middle-school students in the U.K., for free.

Those who have lived through previous hurricane seasons and experienced the pain of lost data, know that backup is crucial, and that you shouldn't underestimate the value of being prepared for a natural disaster.

When the time comes to discuss artificial intelligence (AI) integration in a particular business unit, you’d think the chief information officer (CIO) would be the obvious go-to person — but it’s the chief data officer (CDO) who should be on your radar. AI activity often falls under the care of the CDO because it involves using data, technology and analytics to make informed research and product decisions.

For decades, scientists have worked toward the 'holy grail' of finding a cure for cancer. While significant progress has been made, their efforts have often been worked on as individual entities. Now, as organizations of all kinds seek to put the massive amounts of data they take in to good use, so, too, are the health care industry and the U.S. federal government.

Someday, in the not-too-distant-future, a robot could potentially be performing your liver transplant or take out your appendix – or at least portions of it, thanks to the Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR), which is so far revealing in tests the ability to sew more precisely than an experienced surgeon.

For higher-education institutions, which have data policies dictating what information can and cannot be moved off-premises, a new data storage and processing solution may seem increasingly appealing: the hybrid cloud. This model, which offers a blend of traditional IT, public and private resources, enables schools to keep sensitive data on-premises and internal IT staff to be more efficient at meeting demand for computing power.

With summer travel season in full swing, it’s imperative for airlines to have scalable infrastructure and solid business continuity processes that ensure they can handle downtime events. Though airlines are under considerable pressure to keep costs down, they also need to stay current with the latest technologies, such as the cloud, big data, virtualization and mobility. A scalable IT infrastructure may be the best option for airlines, as it will afford them greater flexibility and responsiveness, enabling them to better serve their customers in the event planes are grounded.

Much has been written about how cyber security risks are on the rise and becoming more complex, and how organizations are grappling with warding off attacks while staying in compliance with regulations. Enter managed security service providers (MSSPs), which are often billed as the panacea that helps enhance an organization's security operations.

Even with a shortage of IT workers, some employers are still discerning in their hiring requirements and are either seeking certified candidates or offering to pay for their employees to become certified.

From a lack of visibility into infrastructure to licensing and governance issues, frustrating surprises await your migration to the cloud. Here’s a real-world look at how traditional companies are navigating the cloud’s less-documented challenges.

Because the hospitality industry is fueled by providing positive customer experiences, it’s crucial that all technology is kept up to date and properly managed. Hospitality technology is needed to run all hotel management company systems, including back office, guest and meeting rooms and property.

DevOps is not only having a big impact on IT, but on entire organizations,Some 63% of infrastructure and operations professionals indicated they have implemented or are already using and expanding DevOps, and another 27 % are planning to implement it, according to Forrester's Q1 2017 Global DevOps Benchmark Online Survey.

In today’s world, where digital disruption is the norm, many businesses find themselves looking to IT support services for help with their technology needs. Often, this method provides a cost-effective approach for an enterprise IT budget. Is outsourcing IT support services the right move for your enterprise? Consider this list of pros and cons.

Open source has entered the limelight at work. Not only is it frequently being used in businesses – but it’s helping people build their professional reputations, according to the recently released 2017 GitHub Open Source Survey.

The hybrid cloud has emerged as a popular model at a time when utilizing IT-as-a-service (ITaaS) is also gaining momentum. By combining the use of both private and public clouds, hybrid cloud environments can offer organizations the best of both worlds.

As fake news dominates headlines and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to alter images, video, or photographs is rampant, media outlets, political campaigns, ecommerce sites, and even legal proceedings are being called into question for the work they generate. This has led to various efforts in government, academia, and technological realms to help identify such fakery.

For developers, serverless computing is development nirvana. It means they don’t have to worry about infrastructure when deploying code; all computing resources—such as managing, provisioning, and maintaining servers—are dynamically provisioned by the cloud provider.

For years, the specter of failing to “keep the lights on” haunted IT leadership, but now, the worry has become how to develop an agile IT staff. There’s growing recognition among C-level executives that a business’s ability to be competitive and successful is strongly intertwined with how IT performs.

Herman Brown has been CIO for the San Francisco Attorney General’s Office for less than two years. But in that time, he has instituted an “open door policy” that emphasizes trust and support, and working with the business units to resolve individual, department and agency concerns, and ultimately, help them be more successful.
.

Meet the CIO of 2018, a new breed of CIOs who are proving once and for all that not only can they transform their organizations to digital businesses, but they are transforming themselves as well. In the process, they are putting to rest the age-old perception that IT is a cost center that exists to keep the lights on as its leaders are increasingly becoming more integral members of the business.

Formal software verification relies on mathematical theorems and reasoning and uses deductive techniques to check the most critical aspects of a system. Proponents say this technique is making hacker-proof software possible.

With only a couple of weeks remaining until the May 25th deadline for the European Union’s General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), countless reports have come out issuing dire warnings about failure to comply with the new law. All the reports have one constant theme: many companies still aren’t prepared...

For decades, scientists have worked toward the 'holy grail' of finding a cure for cancer. While significant progress has been made, their efforts have often been worked on as individual entities. Now, as organizations of all kinds seek to put the massive amounts of data they take in to good use, so, too, are the health care industry and the U.S. federal government.

The number of new international students studying on U.S. campuses declined by 3% in the 2016-17 school year while the number of graduate students declined by 1.3%, according to a recent report from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

Interest in hiring open source workers is on the rise, with 60 percent of companies surveyed looking for full-time hires, compared with 53 percent last year, according to the 2017 Open Source Jobs Report.

Bug bounty programs reward individuals for finding and reporting software bugs and are increasingly becoming a core part of an organization's vulnerability management strategy. The prevalence of such programs has created vulnerability management service opportunities for channel partners, who can weigh in with forensic and remediation services to determine whether a bug is legitimate and then fix it.

Digital transformation is increasing pressure on IT to innovate more quickly and efficiently so organizations can improve processes and create new products. With only so many IT bodies and so many hours in a day, there’s a not-so-new tool they are frequently turning to: low-code development platforms.

The number of new international students studying on U.S. campuses declined by 3% in the 2016-17 school year while the number of graduate students declined by 1.3%, according to a recent report from the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs.

In August, a supercomputer known as the Spaceborne Computer was launched into space in a joint project between Hewlett Packard Enterprise and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to determine whether an off-the-shelf computer would last in the harsh conditions of space.

No longer do traditional IT services fall solely under the purview of on-premises data centers. Workloads are increasingly being transferred to the cloud in order to meet changing business requirements and achieve greater agility and flexibility.

With digital transformation initiatives and an increased number of apps making their way into organizations, some are turning to low-code development platforms to help ease the burden on corporate Information Technology (IT) departments.

It’s a very good time to be a Linux professional. Linux is back on top as the most in-demand open source skill and hiring these professionals has become a higher priority for 83% of hiring managers this year compared to 76% in 2017, according to the newly released 2018 Open Source Jobs Report.

Chances are, if you’ve dealt with a company’s customer service department or emailed someone and gotten a response from their “personal assistant,” you may have already unknowingly experienced what it’s like to interact with a chatbot.

Keyword search is becoming obsolete as a new subset of cognitive computing emerges: cognitive search technology. This innovation makes search more intelligent by delivering the most relevant information to natural-language queries within large data sets.

With the rapid pace of change in technology today, it’s not easy being a chief marketing officer. Digital disruption is impacting every industry, and CMOs are under pressure to keep up in order to provide personalized customer experiences.

Not surprisingly, mobile security ranks among the top challenges IT faces when it comes to protecting small and mid-sized businesses. What is surprising, however, is that only 16% of SMBs worldwide responding to a recent Techaisle survey say they’re prepared to deal with mobile security challenges.

Open source experts say it comes as little surprise that the top 500 supercomputers in the world are running Linux, and there are several aspects that make it a good environment for supercomputers: it is free, it is modular, and it allows for customization far more easily than commercially available operating systems.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are all the rage right now. No matter what industry you’re in, deploying AI applications is becoming a business imperative and many organizations are finding that establishing an AI Center of Excellence (COE) can help them cope with the new technologies and skills needed to help them meet their objectives.

In 2018, girls and women are getting the message they belong in computer science as much as boys and men, thanks to a greater push for STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) curricula in schools and a vast number of programs available to them outside of school.

One of the biggest benefits of open source is the ability to collaborate and partner with others on projects. Another is being able to package and share resources, something Michelle Noorali has done using Kubernetes.

If you’re like most people, you’ve probably gotten a few emails this week alone purporting to be from Amazon, PayPal, Netflix, and others, informing you that your credit card has expired, and you need to click this button to update the information. Hopefully, you thought twice before you clicked. If you didn’t, you’ve probably been phished.

Blockchains have to be trusted in order for them to succeed, and public blockchains can cause problems you may not think about, according to Bruce Schneier, a fellow and lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, in his keynote address at December’s Hyperledger Global Forum on “Security, Trust and Blockchain.”

It takes more than good flavor and a hearty crunch to sell the salty snacks churned out at Frito-Lay. Corporate executives knew that capturing best practices and corporate information would give employees something they could sink their teeth into.

All around the country, more and more police agencies are interested in drones, among other spying technology, and civil rights and other observers say there need to be rules in place to balance public safety with individuals' right to privacy.

A few factors are conspiring to make finding DevOps pros a complicated business. Hiring managers face off-the-charts competition for anyone with relevant experience. Then there's the general lack of agreement over what responsibilities specific DevOps roles include, or should include, which makes filling jobs anything but straightforward.

The non-profit Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) issues a semi-annual study on Trends in IT Security, which looks at what is happening in the security market and ways end users and channel firms should be adjusting to the new security reality. A look at what the channel needs to know